AQUACULTURE ECONOMICS, MANAGEMENT, AND MARKETING
Are Some Production Systems
More Profitable than Others? The following is a brief summary of a recently published scientific article: Engle, C.R., G. Kumar, and J. van Senten, 2020. Cost drivers and profitability of U.S. pond, raceway, and RAS aquaculture. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. Article DOI: 10.1002/JWAS.12706. By: Carole R. Engle, Ganesh Kumar, and Jonathan van Senten*
Finfish aquaculture is complex and diverse, including many species and strains of fish raised in a wide variety of production systems. Technologies used to raise fish also continue to evolve into increasingly sophisticated forms. One seemingly ever-present question is that of which production systems and species are the most profitable. While there likely will never be one simple answer to that question, a recently published paper sheds light on some of the key factors that affect profitability of different production systems.
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n Engle et al. (2020), 58 different enterprise budgets were developed for nine species of finfish raised in earthen ponds, raceways, and recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) at various scales of production. The budgets are available at: https://www.arec.vaes. vt.edu/arec/virginia-seafood/research/aquaculture_budgets.html. Key values such as those for land, interest rates, wages and salaries were standardized across all budgets to allow for more direct comparison among production systems and species. For the pond scenarios, data used were from surveys conducted of these established segments of U.S. aquaculture (see van Senten et al. 2017; Engle et al. 2019; and Kumar et al. 2020). Of the budgets, 27 were for catfish because of the wide array of farming practices used in the catfish industry and the importance of catfish production in U.S. aquaculture. Additional details on catfish results are available in Kumar et al. (2020). For the RAS budgets, recently published studies on the economics of RAS were used to select coefficients used in the budgets (Boulet et al. 2010; Liu et al. 2016; and Bjorndal
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2020
